Welcome to Texas justice: You might beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride.

Friday, May 08, 2009

Harris Sheriff can't spend stimulus money on guns and gadgets

The infusion of federal stimulus money for law enforcement purposes raises significant questions about oversight of those funds and how best to spend them, so I'm glad to see the Harris County Commissioners Court setting the proper tone by rejecting proposals from the new county Sheriff to buy the department machine guns and lease a helicopter. According to the Houston Chronicle ("Harris County cuts Sheriff's wish list," May 5) :

The Harris County Commissioners Court on Tuesday tossed out almost all of Sheriff Adrian Garcia’s requests for federal stimulus funding, instead allocating his office $6.2 million for electronic inmate medical records.

The court balked at Garcia’s original plan to spend $6.6 million leasing a helicopter and another $550,000 buying equipment, including a covert surveillance van and machine guns for boats patrolling the Houston Ship Channel.

The sheriff’s revised proposal included a scaled-back helicopter program, but called for spending most of the money on computer systems to better manage inmates and jailers. Just $1.5 million would have gone toward electronic medical records under that plan.

That was a smart move by Harris County Commissioners. I'm glad to see somebody in Houston has figured out that job one for the Sheriff is running an overcrowded jail with 10,000 inmates. Fixing the jail's inmate record systems is a much more pressing concern than buying fancy surveillance equipment or adding machine guns to patrol boats in the harbor.

All over the state, counties are making similar decisions right now about what to do with federal stimulus money, and my guess is we'll see a lot of it squandered buying guns and gadgets instead of spending it on fundamentals. That would be a waste and a shame.

15 comments:

Yep I wonder what the chief of the wonderful city of Tenaha,Texas would do with such funds. I would guess he would want to have bank vault installed in the department to keep all the seized cash and jewlery....Just a guess.

You can rest assured that the drug cartels are spending money on guns and gadgets..It is amazing to see the different perspectives from those who do the jobs and those who push policy regarding the jobs...

As though the Harris County Sheriff is spending most of its time tracking down drug cartels - Puleeze!!

Has there ever been an incident in the decades-long history of the Houston Ship Channel where they needed machine guns on patrol boats? If not, the medical records mess is a problem at the jail EVERY DAY.

In Texas' most populous counties, as cities with their own pd-s expand, elected sheriffs are becoming little more than jailers and court bailiffs despite their patrol divisions/narco squads and legions of decency tasked with raiding jiggle joints.

The cops become less accountable as police chiefs are well oiled friends of mayors and councils. At least we can fire opportunists like Garcia at the next election.

Yes, I lay awake nights worrying that the local inmates are getting less than stellar medical treatment. Thank goodness the powers that be saw fit to keep us safe by installing better computer systems so those poor, downtrodden, put upon inmates will have accurate medical records and receive better treatment. PHEW!!!!

And speaking as someone that has worked with the incarcerated, they want all of their medical needs addressed. It is amazing the medical conditions that people are willing to live with in the free, but lock'em up and they want immediate medical attention. If it is not life threatening....suck it up!

"I lay awake nights worrying that the local inmates are getting less than stellar medical treatment."

It's not about the quality of care, moron, it's the cost to the taxpayers from lawsuits and paying more later because they put off preventive care. But then I guess you like paying high, unnecessary taxes for preventable problems. Idiot.

Actually, now is a good time for a business or govt entity to buy a new helicopter. With the tax deductions the way they are, you can recapture roughly 80 percent of the purchase price over a period of three years.

"I always tell people interested in these issues that your blog is the most important news source, and have had high-ranking corrections officials tell me they read it regularly."

- Scott Medlock, Texas Civil Rights Project

"a helluva blog"

- Solomon Moore, NY Times criminal justice correspondent

"Congrats on building one of the most read and important blogs on a specific policy area that I've ever seen"

- Donald Lee, Texas Conference of Urban Counties

GFB "is a fact-packed, trustworthy reporter of the weirdness that makes up corrections and criminal law in the Lone Star State" and has "shown more naked emperors than Hans Christian Andersen ever did."

-Attorney Bob Mabry, Conroe

"Grits really shows the potential of a single-state focused criminal law blog"

- Corey Yung, Sex Crimes Blog

"I regard Grits for Breakfast as one of the most welcome and helpful vehicles we elected officials have for understanding the problems and their solutions."

Tommy Adkisson,Bexar County Commissioner

"dude really has a pragmatic approach to crime fighting, almost like he’s some kind of statistics superhero"

- Rob Patterson, The Austin Post"Scott Henson's 'Grits for Breakfast' is one of the most insightful blogs on criminal justice issues in Texas."

- Texas Public Policy Foundation

"Nobody does it better or works harder getting it right"

David Jennings, aka "Big Jolly"

"I appreciate the fact that you obviously try to see both sides of an issue, regardless of which side you end up supporting."

Kim Vickers,Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and EducationGrits for Breakfast "has probably broken more criminal justice stories than any TX reporter, but stays under the radar. Fascinating guy."

Maurice Chammah,The Marshall Project"unrestrained and uneducated"

John Bradley,Former Williamson County District Attorney, now former Attorney General of Palau

"our favorite blog"

- Texas District and County Attorneys Association Twitter feed"Scott Henson ... writes his terrific blog Grits for Breakfast from an outhouse in Texas."